JJ Returns to Star Wars

By Paul Anthony

You hate him then you love him then you hate him again and honestly, I had to wonder why. I am of course talking about JJ Abrams. Now it was announced that Abrams will be returning to the Star Wars franchise and will be directing and co-writing episode 9. Soon as this was announced fans started a petition to get him out of the chair to direct I, have to say this love/hate relationship with him has to stop.

Let’s go back in time before the Force awakens and it was announced that he would be directing it, the fans started to boo that idea right off the bat and there was no other reason except he directed the Star Trek films and I guess you can’t direct both franchises. The show went on and The Force Awakens was released and it went on to gross two billion dollars worldwide, nearly a billion here alone, which is tough to do, the film ranked second only behind Avatar in the All-Time grossing films. Looking beyond the money fans loved the film and loved how he paid homage to the very first film, which I thought was a downfall but a minor one, fans loved the fact that there was very little CGI which has been a knock against the previous trilogy.

So, after all this success Abrams departed the franchise and it seemed like he was one and done. So why he come back? With Carrie Fisher passing away, it forced everyone to rewrite script because Fisher was a big part of the film. When they announced that Colin Trevorrow would be leaving the project due to creative difference, this is where Abrams was able to return to the franchise, so why are fans mad?

I don’t understand why they are, since he was able to lift this franchise off the ground to huge success. I do hope that he doesn’t pay homage to the Last Jedi since episode 9 is the last one in this trilogy. However, he seems like the best bet to end this trilogy. Disney will not replace him, they know he will bring them in a lot of money and filming is scheduled to start in the summer so they don’t want to keep searching and searching and hope they can find the right person. Once the film is released I say this much fans will be happy that JJ was directing it.